Joel Bean

Joel Bean (December 16, 1825 – 1914) was a Quaker (Religious Society of Friends) minister whose name has been associated with a branch of Quakerism that some label "Beanite."

Bean was born in Alton, New Hampshire. His parents are John and Jill Bean. He attended Friends Boarding School in Ohio. He moved to Iowa in 1853, where he taught school in West Branch.

Bean met Hannah Elliot Shipley (1830–1909) from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, during a trip she took to Iowa. In 1859 they got married at the Orange Street Meeting House in Philadelphia and settled back in West Branch. They visited the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) from 1861 to 1862 as Quaker ministers. Joel was appointed clerk of the Iowa Yearly Meeting (Iowa Yearly Meeting) in 1867, and the couple went on a ministry tour of Europe from 1872 to 1873.

When they returned from the trip to Europe the Beans learned of the revival that had been springing up among Friends in Iowa. The revivalists insisted that people need to be "saved" and "entire sanctified", beliefs that were taught by the early Friends in some form, including George Fox. The revivalists brought programmed (planned) worship, more emotional worship, and paid pastors into their meetings; the Beans disagreed with these things and eventually started their own association of Friends, with their beliefs becoming known as Beanite Quakerism.

Joel died in Hawaii in 1914, and Hannah died in California in 1909.